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Former Iraqi MP Ahmed Alwanai Found Murdered in Beirut
Lebanese security forces found former Iraqi MP Ahmed Alwanai murdered inside an apartment in Beirut, four days after he was reported missing.
The Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Tuesday that Alwanai’s body had been found in the Lebanese capital. Lebanese media said he was found dead in an apartment in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jadideh district and had been strangled after being lured there.
A judicial source told *Asharq Al-Awsat* that security forces found an unidentified body on Monday evening. Its identity was confirmed as Alwanai’s on Tuesday afternoon, after his family filed a missing-person report. The source said surveillance footage showed Alwanai arriving at the building with two people and entering the apartment where his body was later found. He was strangled with a curtain cord that had been removed from inside the home, the source added.
The judicial source said investigators had identified three people suspected of involvement in the crime: two Syrians and a Lebanese man who is being held for questioning. The suspects had reportedly taken Alwanai from the airport to his hotel when he arrived in Beirut. The source said the two Syrian suspects may have left Lebanon after the murder. According to the forensic medical report, Alwanai died at least three days before his body was found.
The Iraqi Embassy in Beirut had received information from Alwanai’s family that they had been unable to reach him for four days, his phones were switched off, and his whereabouts were unknown—even to his escorts.
Judge Ahmad Rami al-Hajj, the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, is overseeing the preliminary investigation. The Information Branch of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces is conducting inquiries to establish the circumstances of the crime.
A Lebanese security source said authorities had received a report that contact with Alwanai was lost after he entered Lebanon, prompting search and investigation efforts. The Iraqi Embassy was following the case and remained in contact with senior officials in Baghdad, according to Iraqi media.
The Iraqi Embassy in Lebanon said the ambassador was personally following the case and was in direct contact with Lebanese security agencies and Alwanai’s family to determine what had happened. The National News Agency quoted a Lebanese security source as saying that two Syrians and a Lebanese man had rented the apartment where Alwanai was found murdered.
